Maginnes: Big difference between happy and content

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Do you think that there are guys on the PGA TOUR who are happy finishing 70th on the money list every year, playing the best golf courses and pocketing over $1 million for their efforts? Of course there are. Heck, if you can't be happy under those circumstances, then pile onto Dr. Phil's couch and let the healing begin.

Brian Gay's victory was a result of his perseverance, says John Maginnes. (Feldman/WireImage)

But, the concept of happiness and contentedness are two totally different things. Look at Jerry Kelly, who is a two-time TOUR winner. He has made enough money in his 12 years on TOUR to hang up the cleats and stay home in Madison, Wis., with his wife and son and never worry about money again.

But Jerry does worry. He worries about what it's going to take for him to get back into the winner's circle. He worries about breaking through and winning a major. He isn't worried about keeping his job -- he is worried about doing his job.

He is happy but he is not content. That is the difference. I am tired of the suggestion that there are players on TOUR who tread water and collect checks. This seems to be a sentiment more often found in the media center than among golf fans. As a member of the media now, I realize that taking shots at my fellow writers and announcers is fool-hearty at best -- but then again, I was never one to lay up when there was a chance to go for it.

Sure, there are guys who hang around the top 125 every year and slip into another year of exemption. Woody Austin fell into that category for a few years. It seems ludicrous now to suggest that Woody was happy with the situation. Woody even lost his card for a time. But now, at the age of 42, Woody has risen to the heights of the golf world. It is ridiculous to think that a guy can go from complacent check casher to Presidents Cup hero.

Brian Gay's victory a couple of weeks ago was further proof that the most important ingredient in a PGA TOUR career is perseverance. Brian pounded on the door for years trying to earn his first victory. Is he comfortable financially? Sure he is, but he also knows that as soon as you stop getting better there are others ready to step in and take your spot.

The driving ranges of the mini-tours and the Nationwide Tour are literally teeming with kids ready to knock Jerry, Woody and Brian off their perches. That trio, like everyone else on TOUR, knows this. They know it because they lived it once.

Every year a new crop of kids comes along ready to stake their claim on TOUR. For every Brandt Snedeker and John Mallinger, there is another player who went back to q-school for the first time in years. He went back and didn't make it through, and he is now on the Nationwide Tour. He did not end up there through laziness or complacency; he ended up there because sometimes your efforts are not rewarded with good play.

There is only one player on the PGA TOUR who is defending a position. He is the best to ever defend any position in golf -- and quite possibly, in all of sports. Tiger Woods maintains his position as the best player in the world by not being satisfied with merely being the best player in the world. You can not sit through a single Tiger Woods' press conference without hearing him talk about trying to improve.

As a career, golf is fluid. Confidence and consistency tend to ebb and flow like the tides. Too many weeks or months of low tide and any player can find himself struggling to finish in the top 125 at the end of the year.

The job of a PGA TOUR player is to try to get better every year. Some years, most years, that actually happens. Players don't quantify their progress the same way the media does. Accomplishments like winning a tournament or qualifying for an international team competition are byproducts of the things that a player can control like ball-striking and proper fundamentals.

For every player on TOUR, the idea is to do the job rather than try to keep your job in the same way that each week you aren't trying to make the cut, you are trying to put yourself in position to have a chance to win on Sunday. The true survivors are the ones who are able to adjust on the fly and fight the battle in front of them.

Sometimes that battle is for the trophy but more often than not, even for Tiger, there is a different battle afoot each week. That battle is the search for something to build on for the next week while trying to do the best you can today. With all that going on, who has time to be content?